My Japan trip April 2018

[GaijinPunch]

Weather was around 16 degrees. We didn't see any rain. Mostly it was sunshine as the pics will show. In fact it was really good weather. Not too hot that you sweat your balls off and not too cold either.

Late march / early April was unusually amazing. Definitely know it's not always like that. I went for cherry blossom partying and even my local friends were shitting their pants. Then I came back to Chicago for fucking snow in April.

[neorichieb1971]

Weather was around 16 degrees. We didn't see any rain. Mostly it was sunshine as the pics will show. In fact it was really good weather. Not too hot that you sweat your balls off and not too cold either.

Late march / early April was unusually amazing. Definitely know it's not always like that. I went for cherry blossom partying and even my local friends were shitting their pants. Then I came back to Chicago for fucking snow in April.

I wish we saw the Cherry blossom in full bloom. We only saw remnants of it being a week or two late. 2 videos are up. I did the shortest ones first because my upload speed isn't the greatest.

[neorichieb1971]

So apart from all the games and game shopping, what did you actually think of Japan?

I think Japan makes a mockery of the rest of the world. A country that acts like they would be shot in both knee caps for dropping litter, but acting that way freely is definitely something I'd like to see rolled out worldwide. In the rest of the world it is deemed that rich pockets of places are kept clean, without graffiti and such. But in Japan everywhere is sterile clean. Can you imagine how much the UK government would save if people looked after communal buildings/bridges/walk ways etc? I studied pavements and roads and although they suffer earthquakes on a regular basis I couldn't really find any bad roads at all. Even in the mountains. I think God does their gardening, nature just lends itself so wonderfully to the Japanese lands with a whole host of colours and bloom, its sometimes overwhelmingly beautiful. So the country is very beautiful. I felt that there is probably something about the language barrier that stops hoodlums going there and wrecking the place. In the UK we invite people into the country that want to buy 40 cans of beer and throw the cans in the river when finished with them. Somehow I get the feeling Japan doesn't suffer much from those types of people. In Japan the workers raking leaves by hand just do an awesome job of keeping the place pristine. Not any leaves to be found in most places, all grass was photoshopped.

Transport Technology etc. I was amazed with how much tunneling there is in Japan. On the roads to Lake Hikone we drove probably 15 minutes at a time under a single tunnel. During my Shinkansen GPS speedo runs the signal was lost several times to some extremely long tunnels. We are doing 3 miles a minute on those trains and we were blocked for several minutes. Makes the Euro tunnel look normal. I didn't like the way you pay for the buses and such. Our first bus we had to pay once the journey had ended, luckily we were with a resident of Japan that told us exactly what to do. We found that buying subway day passes was cost and time effective for us. For $2-3 more you afford to make mistakes on the subway. If you buy a single ticket or a return ticket and you make a mistake the machine eats it up on exit. Then you figure "This isn't the right way" and then you have to go buy another one. So the day pass just put our minds at rest. On several occasions we found other places on the subway lines to go and we just went there because we already had a ticket. Some of the trains were packed as you can imagine. When we arrived in Tokyo we thought the JR rail pass covered the subway trains, but it doesn't. We arrived late at night and the guards on the barriers were no longer there so we jumped the barriers several times. It just makes a siren noise for 10 seconds and then resets. Making you wonder that people choose to pay rather than get a free ride. The next day the guard we encountered stated "not valid on subway" looking at our expensive JR rail pass. As previously explained, instead of a return ticket we bought day passes for convenience. Its also easier to navigate the ticket machine to just press day pass rather than working out your ticket price. It doesn't state your station per se. It had buttons for ticket prices. I think you have to look up how much it costs to go where you want to go.

Japanese people - The weakness in Japan is the people imho. The girls were not as pretty as I thought they would be haha. At least not your average girl on the street anyway. Most people have stern faces. I'm sure smiling in Japan means "do you want to fuck?". I did get a few smiles from the older generations but the younger people looked like they had weight on their shoulders. Apart from the 30% that were sleeping on the train. On the positive side there is so much respect for wearing whatever uniform or suit they are wearing. The train staff look like police but are kind and polite. In the Shinkansen the conductor turns around after each carriage he passes through, looks around and bows to the customers. The train drivers dress better than airline pilots.
So imagine I'm an Englishman looking through a peephole. I can see all the respect and such, but I can see there is a burden it carries on the people. I've heard Japanese employers are old school and your lucky to get a vacation. The family I stayed with all work at Costco which adopts a more American style of employment practices. I did notice that a lot of jobs in Japan seemed invented. In Osaka we stayed in a nice hotel which was 4 star. We walked past a neighbouring hotel which had security guards around it standing on the pavement. One of them was sleeping standing up and the other 2 were waving people along the pavement. I didn't get that. My wife said in English "We know where the pavement is, you don't need to wave us along".

The places I visited - OMFG. Yes. Japan is the place you want to go if you really want to feel like you left home. I felt like I was dreaming most of the time. Most of the sites we visited were either free or almost free. Because we paid most of our hotels up front we had a wallet full of cash that didn't seem to deplete until I bought games (mind you, my wife probably ponied up a lot of the ticket prices, I later gave her Y30000 from my stash to make up for it). I still came back with £330 (almost $500). I didn't see the point of spending it if I didn't have to.

Arcades - I walked through them and came out again. I don't know what the fuss is about. I certainly didn't feel like I wanted to stay in there more than 5 minutes. I only filmed 30 seconds of footage inside the arcades because A) its well documented anyway and B) I literally had no interest. I thought there would be, but there wasn't.

Hiroshima - Just want to say that I can't believe a place that was bombed by an atomic bomb looks better than most other places i've been to in the world. The place is vibrant, buzzing, modern and beautiful. There are places in the UK that could do with a atomic sized wrecking ball. Please watch the Hiroshima video I uploaded. All videos i've uploaded are in the OP.

Cars - I noticed that Japan has more variety in cars than I would have first imagined. I'm seeing Dodge Chargers, Mustangs, Minis. Even European cars like Peugeot's and Fiats are well represented. But most cars are yellow plate Kei cars. I love the toll fee barriers where you install a device in the car that the barrier reads to open to the gate. I figure it accumulates the toll fee's to some sort of account which pay in full at the end of the month or something. Travelling 40mph towards a closed barrier to see it lift 20ft in front of you at speed is something else. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgTJ1IBYTKI

Homes - I only stayed in one home. I won't show pictures because its a friends house. Its very woody. The floors are wood, the stairs are wood, the finish on most things is wood. You have to take off your shoes when you enter. Homes are generally small but comfortable. The house I stayed in I had to ask some questions because the lock on the front door was more akin to that of a vault. Using a keyless card and a numeric keypad to enter, an electronic lock on the inside electronically moves to the open position making a robotic sound. It seems to lock in several places on the frame of the door for a proper lock down situation. All windows were also double bolted and thick metal frames which also gave a feeling of "extra security". The bathroom was an experience. The shower sprayed straight onto the floor kinda like a wet room and it felt cramped. The toilet was also in there. It seemed like everything was designed to get wet just so you didn't have to partition anything. The toilet seat was heated, giving a nice warm sensation on your ass. There are electronic controls on most toilets. If you want to read about Japanese toilets read here - https://www.tritan-plumbing.com/blog/japanese-toilets/ . The toilet I used had a tap/faucet and basin on top of the reservoir. Not sure if you wash your hands in it as it is operated from the flush itself. Its like a double up for filling the reservoir and washing your hands at the same time. Or perhaps its not I don't know.

It should be noted that almost all the bicycles outside the homes are just lightly locked or totally unlocked. I could not believe it. If half the hoodlums in UK went to Japan those would be lifted and shifted within 2 years. For some reason many homes have water bottles outside the front door. Do they deliver bottled water in Japan? I was also wondering about the car lifts they use. They look like -

http://nihonshock.com/wp-content/upload ... 7/lift.jpg - This one is a private residence which I can somewhat see how that would work. But communal car parks also have them in lines. What happens when there is a car below yours? How do you even get up there to get in your car?



Airports/flying travel - When we arrived at Narita we spent a good 2 hours in immigration. It was early hours of morning before we got out of there. I wasn't impressed at all. The lines were so long a man in uniform who was middle to old aged with limited English trying to get people to line a certain way. My wife took pictures of it. About 30 minutes after she did that the man forced me to get my phone out of my pocket and show him the pictures I had taken. I gather he didn't want foreigners to go away with photographic evidence of what was going on there. I don't know why he picked me I was just playing phone games passing the time. I think most people would feel offended the way he handled that situation. Because we flew Emirates we got to ride the A380 airbus. Its marginally an improvement over smaller aircraft. London Gatwick doesn't have a carousel big enough to support the 800 passengers so they use 2 carousels for your luggage. Which of course is extremely frustrating with multiple bags not knowing which side of you your bags are going to be on. We flew to the Philippines and then from there to Japan. Which saved us quite a bit I think. I'm pretty sure British airways do direct flights from London to Japan but it costs a grand. I think we paid £750 per person going the route we did. But to be fair we only went to the Philippines to see my wifes family for a stop gap.

Hotels and breakfasts / restaurants - I don't like traditional Japanese food. I'm more of a pastry English breakfast person myself. All that noodle, rice, plants and fish food stuff might be really good for you but I can't really stomach it. I do like the quality of food in Japan that I do like though, like burgers, steaks, Kobe beef etc. I do like noodles if its a soup type noodle dish. But overall I think anyone American or English that hasn't eaten traditional Japanese would have to choose wisely to actually enjoy the food. You only get chop sticks unless you ask for a fork. If you do get traditional cutlery you get a fork and a spoon. I wonder how Japanese cut food myself!!! Do you only get a knife if you buy a steak? Most fast food places have a menu on the counter that is representative of the menu above the counter (on a smaller scale). So pick what you want whilst in line, then point at the menu on the counter when your at the front. Its all relatively simply laid out.

Hotels. We stayed at -

Saitama prefecture - Friends house
Toyoko Inn - Akihabara (15 mins walk to the game shops)
Bird Hostel - Kyoto
APA Hotel Namba Shinsaibashi - Osaka (this was a 4 star).

Most places were between £40-£60 a night. My wife booked these because they all facilitated our requirement to look after our luggage until the end of the last day. With 2 large suit cases and 2 or 3 smaller bags, you can hardly enjoy your last day if when you check out you need to drag these items with you. Unless your back packing only, this was the only option.


Navigation/money/transport tickets -

We were armed with a 3 gig sim card pre paid. We still got lost a few times. But the maps that google has on phones these days makes finding places easier. A lot of the time your underground so you can lose your sense of direction. But for the most part this is a handy tool. Friends in Akihabara is a retro shop which the map takes you right outside of, but because the stairwell leading up to it is not very well signed you can feel like your not at the right place. We were right outside it for 20 minutes before my wife had the courage to ask someone and they said "your here, its just up those stairs".

I took Y230000 (£1500, $2100) on todays exchange. My wife took another Y100000. We both came back with money. By the time I paid my games I had Y130000 left. So give or take I spent around £550 on games. Maybe a bit less because I did buy a few other things.

Transport tickets - We bought JR rail passes at £190 each I think. My wife says Shinkansen is Y20000 for a trip (not sure where she got that). But if true thats £131 a trip. Which makes it a good deal because we used Shinkansen to get from Tokyo to Kyoto, Kyoto to Osaka, Osaka to Himeji and back, Osaka to Hiroshima and back. Then we used the pass for the airport express to Osaka Airport.



Some unfortunates. Apart from me falling ill for a day or 2. My father in law passed away. My wife obviously felt shockwaves through her system when she found out. She is now in the Philippines helping sort out the funeral arrangements. Was it a blessing or a curse? Who knows? She did try to hide it, but sometimes she got ratty with me. I just hope Felix got a good send off. I came home on time so missed the ceremony. Emirates wanted £350 for a rebooking.

I think that covers most of my thoughts. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

[GaijinPunch]

Interesting thoughts... it's definitely a complex place, and how long you can handle it really is a personal thing. For me... it was a long time. A lot of what you wrote was exactly what I found. When you first get there, it's very refreshing. Some of it never wears off: the cleanliness for one. I have litter all over my fucking neighborhood (especially the alley) and it really fucks me off. The safety is the other. In fact, that's the one that may, at some point down the road, draw me back.

The whole not smiling in public and whatnot: I have loads of the thoughts lack of interaction and whatnot. I think the crux of it is in Japan, you're way more responsible for your family and close friends. I've had creditors asking me to pay my old roommates delinquent CC bills to prevent them from being black listed (for serious). The senpai/kouhai system in university and employment, and the guarantor system which is 100% required to rent a flat are perfect examples of "you are your brothers keeper" in Japan. The result? People don't bat an eye at anyone they don't have to... even if they've gone horizontal on a bicycle and take an ice coffee shower at 8AM. (Yes, that happened to me). On the flip side, if you make the first move to break the ice, they're usually quite cordial. Unless you're an asshole.

[neorichieb1971]

You have much more Japan experience than me and what you say makes sense. Something I forgot to mention in my post is some of the men and women dress in traditional clothing and some girls are dressed in what my new Auntie described as "Otaku". I was at a highway restaurant hub (station) eating my noodles and a lady sat opposite me in full costume attire and makeup. I couldn't take my eyes off her. I mean, dressed like that I'm thinking "are you serious?" as she sat there with her 2 kids and hubby. I suppose women like that have a lot of time on their hands to do all that makeup and dressing up. Those women that wear sandles from the 1800's and walk like baby steps as well . My wife was looking at them thinking "is that even comfortable?".

Another thing that blows my mind apart from the bicycles left unlocked is how many vending machines are scattered in places. Its very convenient because if you want a drink and you don't want to line up in the shop you can just get Y200 and buy a drink from the machine at ice cold temperatures. But the other side of me says that if the UK rolled out such machines A) they would be broken into B) be vandalized for the sake of it and C) be robbed. And you see thats the difference in Japan. Another thing I noticed in Mcdonalds (only ate twice there) is that Japanese use the place to sleep, do homework and school assignments and to use social media. Its like eating is not the primary cause for going there.

Something I noticed in Tokyo and Osaka is some kind of speaker system on a car or van. Not sure what was going on, if that happened in the UK I would think an act of terrorism was taking place and vacate the area. I'm completely lost on what was going on, but it happened 2 or 3 times during my stay. Perhaps it is election time, or perhaps its a method of broadcasting/advertising.

In Himeji I saw girls dancing on the street with old men clapping and cheering them on. They were really getting into the J-POP songs. All that is in my Himeji video, some of which is the first couple of minutes. Whilst in Himeji I'm looking at this bright white castle that looked like it was built yesterday. HTF do they keep it that white? Japan seems to like white. If your in the train station its all white, the trains are mostly white, the signs are white. I'm sure it affected my eyes, maybe to the point where my eyes are going Japanesey. I'll go check.

[GaijinPunch]

was at a highway restaurant hub (station) eating my noodles and a lady sat opposite me in full costume attire and makeup. I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Guess you didn't see any grown men dressed up like Little Bo Peep then.

Those women that wear sandles from the 1800's and walk like baby steps as well . My wife was looking at them thinking "is that even comfortable?".

That's not an every day affair for them though. They are likely going to some event/hobby that requires it (a wedding, tea ceremony, celebration of some sort).

Something I noticed in Tokyo and Osaka is some kind of speaker system on a car or van. Not sure what was going on, if that happened in the UK I would think an act of terrorism was taking place and vacate the area. I'm completely lost on what was going on, but it happened 2 or 3 times during my stay. Perhaps it is election time, or perhaps its a method of broadcasting/advertising.

Those are the right wingers. Uyoku Dantai.

[MintyTheCat]

It's interesting that you keep referring to the UK and its hoodlums and crime. It is indeed true that crime has increased a fair amount but also there's just less opportunities for meaningful work, training, education and even welfare fails most people in the UK. Hell, even hoping to get an operation before you die is a challenge.

I do agree though that having to deal with crime on a daily basis just serves to lessen the quality of life for all concerned.

I think that generally speaking Japan is a bit too hard on people in one sense. I know people who regard themselves as being failures of sort of another who are Japanese and to be fair they relaly aren't but by their social standards and standing they feel that they are and there's not too places that one can stand as the runner up or the failure over there.

It may be great that they take certain things seriosuly and such but it's still a hard going society for many of them and I certainly wouldn't want to have to live over there long-term.

[MintyTheCat]

Those are the right wingers. Uyoku Dantai.

Didn't they catch one of them the one who was in all those art videos and she's in prison in Japan now? It's quite interesting how organised crime works in Japan and how these ultra nationalist groups took shape.

[Bananamatic]

Those are the right wingers. Uyoku Dantai.

based

[GaijinPunch]

Those are the right wingers. Uyoku Dantai.

Didn't they catch one of them the one who was in all those art videos and she's in prison in Japan now? It's quite interesting how organised crime works in Japan and how these ultra nationalist groups took shape.

Define "caught one"? They technically aren't doing anything illegal (except probably the loudness of their speakers). They are known to be backed by the yaks though.

[MintyTheCat]

Those are the right wingers. Uyoku Dantai.

Didn't they catch one of them the one who was in all those art videos and she's in prison in Japan now? It's quite interesting how organised crime works in Japan and how these ultra nationalist groups took shape.

Define "caught one"? They technically aren't doing anything illegal (except probably the loudness of their speakers). They are known to be backed by the yaks though.

It was actually the Japanese Red Army movement that I was thinking of:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusako_Shigenobu
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldn ... ailed.html

[Ixmucane2]

Something I noticed in Tokyo and Osaka is some kind of speaker system on a car or van. Not sure what was going on, if that happened in the UK I would think an act of terrorism was taking place and vacate the area. I'm completely lost on what was going on, but it happened 2 or 3 times during my stay. Perhaps it is election time, or perhaps its a method of broadcasting/advertising.

Just semi-obsolete, unevenly distributed technology.
In Italy speakers on a vehicle, the direct successor of unassisted shouting, are the traditional advertisement of mobile blade sharpener and umbrella mender combination shops operating out of a truck, hoping to gather accumulated work in the neighborhood where they stop and call; it's highly unusual even for other types of peddlers, and it would be an unjustified annoyance for other uses.

[layzee]

in Japan everywhere is sterile clean.

I think Japan is pretty unique when it comes to cleanliness. Not every nation's people would stay behind and pick up their trash immediately after seeing their team lose at the 2014 Fifa World Cup at Brazil. It seems this attitude is instilled pretty early. Ever watched an anime where the main characters are students and they stay behind to sweep and mop up the school floors? Good luck introducing that concept/mentality anywhere else in the world.

I think Singapore is a pretty close second and their approach on chewing gum is pretty well known. On the other hand, in countries such as mine (and y'alls), our Governments have to spend millions of our tax dollars every year on removing grafitti.

"Mockery" is damn right.

I felt that there is probably something about the language barrier that stops hoodlums going there and wrecking the place. In the UK we invite people into the country that want to buy 40 cans of beer and throw the cans in the river when finished with them. Somehow I get the feeling Japan doesn't suffer much from those types of people.

By "hoodlums", are you referring to refugees or just foreigners in general? If you mean refugees, then the language barrier would be a big one. Other possible reasons include the fact that Japan is an island nation (harder to cross the border called the "ocean"); Japan being very strict (compared to say, Germany) on who and how many they allow in; and being similar strict on social welfare given to foreigners.

If you mean just foreign tourists in general, then I'm not sure. What's stopping British football chavs from going to Japan and tearing up the place? I dunno. Chinese tourists have been in the news these days though, for the wrong reasons.

The girls were not as pretty as I thought they would be haha.

In addition to the cleanliness point above, Japan also has another advantage: one of the lowest obesity rates among first world countries. Girls, by simply not being overweight, are already above average, sad to say. Also, Japan is not as enthusiastic about plastic surgery as South Koreans are, so that's another thing to consider.

Though the rest of your paragraphs seem to imply that you were more referring to attractiveness in regards to personality rather than just physical? Well, it's no secret that overall, Japan is a more introverted nation than most. If you're an extrovert (and caucasian), then I guess you can use this to your advantage.

I did notice that a lot of jobs in Japan seemed invented.

I read about this before. It seems like the Japanese government likes to hire people for the sake of hiring them when the typical capitalist approach is to make them redundant because they're not generating value. But one could think of it this way: it's better to hire them to do "bullshit jobs" because it's cheaper than mere social welfare (which is effectively what it is) and it also gives that employee a sense of purpose in society.

As a person who lives in a relatively comfortable non-Asian society, there are a few things I'm not a fan of: the immense academic pressure placed on the youth (same story in South Korea, China, etc) and the long working hours and unpaid overtimes. It seems Japanese people live to work, not vice versa.

It should be noted that almost all the bicycles outside the homes are just lightly locked or totally unlocked. I could not believe it. If half the hoodlums in UK went to Japan those would be lifted and shifted within 2 years.

I think this is another aspect of Japan that is unique: the high level of trust. In other words, if you lose your wallet, chances are you will get it back. As opposed to just about every other country on Earth where chances are you will not get it back.

Spoiler

Disclaimer: never been to Japan.

[neorichieb1971]

By hoodlums I mean people intent of making something nice something rather less nice. People that have too much time on their hands so they wreck and destroy by way of passing time.

Seriously, walk in a subway station in Japan and the tiles go on forever. None of them are cracked, all are polished white clean and there is a sense of "it should be this way".

Nobody has mentioned my videos yet. Some of them are short and sweet (-20mins).

[MintyTheCat]

I think Japan is pretty unique when it comes to cleanliness. Not every nation's people would stay behind and pick up their trash

A lot of this is a combination of policy and just how behave. Singapore is pretty clean, Germany's fairly clean but it suffers from that 'european toilet smell' that you won't see on the photos but you'll know when you're here. Also, smoking laws are flouted over here and NO ONE gives a shit one way or another. They haven't heard of cancer over here yet

By hoodlums I mean people intent of making something nice something rather less nice. People that have too much time on their hands so they wreck and destroy by way of passing time.

Seriously, walk in a subway station in Japan and the tiles go on forever. None of them are cracked, all are polished white clean and there is a sense of "it should be this way".

Nobody has mentioned my videos yet. Some of them are short and sweet (-20mins).

That's too general as a statement. It's to a certain extent again a function of policy: do you want to have loads of people kicking around with not a lot to do or do you give them things to do or provide them with the means to find their own occupations? It's also a question of budget: is it cheaper, simpler, etc. to not provide training, education and even paid work for people, to develop and maintain that system or is it simpler and economically cheaper to recruit more store security, police, etc? It's really just a question of policy but once it's set up it's hard to alter and it takes time but they also know that it takes time for it to have noticable impact. Some of these policies go back 30+ years, Richie, but we're just seeing some of their effects.

Japan is a bit like Germany in the sense that they'll hand out jobs to people to do pretty meanial things or indeed they resist automating all manner of jobs at the cost to service and such. E.g. Germany STILL has week day banking and it's incredibly old-fashioned interacting with banks over here. However, just try and get any answers or service over the phone in the UK and you'll soon be forced to wait for crap, piss poor service to the extent that it's useless. But, the UK has 24 hour banking 7 days a weeks - and that matters often.

It all boils down to the policies adopted nationally: do you have more people working? Do you train more people? Do you have more people unemployed? How do you handle the pensions time-bomb? etc.

As I see it presently we have ourselves a bit of a paradox: in the future there will be way more people survivng into retirement, but the ratios between people paying itno pensions and those receiving was say 20:1 - what happens when that's 1:20 or worse? But if things continue along the trend there will be just far few people working. So how do you satisfy this? You traditionally required more people to pay into pensions than to claim, you had more paid work for the majority of people - many of those people worked in various trades.

One solution is to simply tax any who has savings or charge a lot for health-insurance (USA) or to use hard caps on quotas for medical operations as a function of capacity (certainly South-East England). You could make employers pay more into terms of pension points to employees who are working - that alters the effectives ratios if say the employee gets their points scaled by 4 you need 3 less workers receiving pension to make the effective ratios work out.

You can also abolish Inheritance - the kids get nowt and the states having let you 'borrow' the assets that you owned takes them back into the pot for future investment Sounds radical but it may happen.

And you keep it all ticking over with high prices, a solid police force and a few support services along the way

It's never as simple as it seems

[Eaglet]

Germany's fairly clean but it suffers from that 'european toilet smell'

This garbage smell is something that's always confounded me. We don't have it in Sweden either.

[MintyTheCat]

Germany's fairly clean but it suffers from that 'european toilet smell'

This garbage smell is something that's always confounded me. We don't have it in Sweden either.

It's a funny one, you'll find it in Spain and one or two other places but I have NEVER, not once in 30+ years ever smelled the drains in England but in Germany it's everywhere - I think that they like it. They also get really pissed off when people ask 'what's that smell?'

It's just the type of drainage system that they came up with and it's not very effective. Also, Germany absolutely prides itself on not wasting water. It doesn't have a water table problem as such; it's simply Germany being conservative. However.....the upshot of that is that the drains fester To my mind I would have two rates or more of water pricing: one for the state to run regular water cycling for the drains, one for domestic use and maybe another for industrial/commercial use. That way, you get industry and commerce to sponsor state water usage - like another operating tax and the place would smell a lot better At one stage the council of Berlin were asked to redo the entire drainage system of Berlin but that's not happened yet and it'll take forever and a day too

[layzee]

Also, smoking laws are flouted over here and NO ONE gives a shit one way or another. They haven't heard of cancer over here yet

Japan's smoking laws are apparently pretty lax. They used to be pretty big smokers but thankfully smoking rates are going down so hopefully no more Super Famicom carts will get stained yellow in the future.

A decrease in cancer would be fine too I guess.

Edit: On further research it seems its not necessarily the smoke that makes retro Nintendo hardware yellow, but the material/chemical in the plastic that Nintendo used.

[Pointman]

Tokyo has a certain odour to it, more so in Ikebukuro. In fact when I went with my friend last year he nicknamed it "Stinkybukuro". It must be a sewage thing, it always smelled like bad eggs to me.

[MintyTheCat]

Also, smoking laws are flouted over here and NO ONE gives a shit one way or another. They haven't heard of cancer over here yet

Japan's smoking laws are apparently pretty lax. They used to be pretty big smokers but thankfully smoking rates are going down so hopefully no more Super Famicom carts will get stained yellow in the future.

A decrease in cancer would be fine too I guess.

Edit: On further research it seems its not necessarily the smoke that makes retro Nintendo hardware yellow, but the material/chemical in the plastic that Nintendo used.

Yes, it can be the materials used in the super famicom that you have as my original has yellowed but a much later one of mine hasn't and no one ever smoked around me or did I live with anyone who smoked.

Asia has the highest rates of smoking but it's really an old man's activity. Germany makes so much money through tobacco sales that they just don't want to stamp on it. A lot lot like the 'european toilet smell' that's all around us here it's another Elephant in the room that no one really talks about, plus the big fag companies white wash any mention of tobacco usage and health issues and indeed cancer - it's pretty corrupted still and indeed one of the high ups in the german cancer dept got caught a few years ago taking cash from I think it was Philip Morrison or BAT so it's a sign of high high up the corruption goes. I think that the idea is that so long as employers pay hefty amounts for their employees' health insurance that the entire system will just 'work'.

[MintyTheCat]

Tokyo has a certain odour to it, more so in Ikebukuro. In fact when I went with my friend last year he nicknamed it "Stinkybukuro". It must be a sewage thing, it always smelled like bad eggs to me.

Yes, sulphides smell like that. You can determine a lot by how things smell.

[neorichieb1971]

Game shops had odours to them. Especially if they were in basements like retro gaming camp.

I'm not convinced that I smelt anything bad in Japan. A couple of times I got a whiff of the drains. Nothing as bad as in the USA when I worked at Bristol Myers Squibb. In the mornings the drains would have sewage steam coming out of them.

[Skykid]

The girls were not as pretty as I thought they would be haha.

I fuckin' toldja so.

You've been watching too much AV man.

[neorichieb1971]

The girls were not as pretty as I thought they would be haha.

I fuckin' toldja so.

You've been watching too much AV man.

They dress elegant/business like. Most have good body shape. But to my eyes there is always something a bit a miss. As previously discussed never saw any of them really smiling, having a laugh or generally having fun. I think there is a lot of beauty hidden in those acts.

[GaijinPunch]

They dress elegant/business like. Most have good body shape. But to my eyes there is always something a bit a miss. As previously discussed never saw any of them really smiling, having a laugh or generally having fun. I think there is a lot of beauty hidden in those acts.

During the weekdays during the day, it is quite professional on most streets of Japan. In a morning rush our train, it's nut to butt and you can still hear a pin drop. Things relax a bit as the night progresses, but it is not necessarily common to find hijinx until the drinking hours.

[neorichieb1971]

My brother asked me if its a coincidence that Kyoto is an anagram of Tokyo?

I looked it up and it seems they have similar meanings which could be why they just happened to be an anagram of each other.

[MintyTheCat]

My brother asked me if its a coincidence that Kyoto is an anagram of Tokyo?

I looked it up and it seems they have similar meanings which could be why they just happened to be an anagram of each other.

Not if you look at the spelling in kana and kanji they're not.

[GaijinPunch]

My brother asked me if its a coincidence that Kyoto is an anagram of Tokyo?

I looked it up and it seems they have similar meanings which could be why they just happened to be an anagram of each other.

Reasons they are not:
-They technically are "Toukyou and Kyouto". Even when accurately romanizing, just about everywhere has adopted the popular spellings of cities.
-Their kanji's mean East Capital / Capital City [or there about] respectively.

The fact that they share a character, and only have one more character each, ups their chances of being an anagram (in English) by a fair margin.

[neorichieb1971]

I am going on another game hunt in the summer in Japan.

Lots have changed in the Japanese collecting world since 2018. Including the prices that have gone even further up. Around 2005 I sold Harmful park on here for around $150.

My itinerary is 3 days in Tokyo, 3 days in Osaka. Staying in Akiba and Den Den Town. I might meet up with some youtubers who live out there (if they agree).

I realize by this stage of 2023 that many of you have moved completely away from tangible game collections, but thats where my heart is.

If you want a vlog/pic fest/update on my trip and collecting chime in. I will make a video this time and upload it on the youtube.

I will be walking along lots of random streets. I have Akiba and 6 train trips around the precincts in my itinerary. I'm taking a jumbo suitcase and a few hundred thousand yen.

I will be buying on a condition scale, not a price scale. I have no interest in profit or getting a mega deal, just want what I want.. thats the way I roll.


I have a new found fetish for Famicom games.

[GaijinPunch]

You should consider purchasing your yen now as it's cheap. No crystal ball, of course.